Siyabonga Sithole
On Wednesday, Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi announced the suspension of four home affairs officials from the Maponya home affairs branch in Soweto.
The four officials are said to be linked to the recently arrested Pakistani Kingpin who was arrested in March on charges of identity fraud, theft and corruption.
The suspension of the four officials follows numerous incidents of identity fraud and corruption and the suspension of head of immigration permitting, Ronney Marhule for his role in authorizing permanent residency to Shepherd Bushiri, his wife and two children in 2016.
The minister has indicated that more arrests will be forthcoming in the coming weeks where locals, home affairs officials and foreign nationals are involved in acts of identity fraud, theft and incidents of corruption in the department.
The minister has since urged South Africans to refrain from selling their identities to foreign nationals and identity thieves as this renders them foreigners In their own country.
“ We continue to be concerned about those South Africans who are willing to sell their identities. Such acts mean that those South Africans lose their status in the country to be replaced by a foreign national,” the minister said.
During his recent budget vote in parliament, the minister spoke at length about his plans to arrest the “elephant in the room” called immigration and border management processes.
“ I do not have to outline what is taking place in our country about this problem. It is a crisis we are all aware of. However, if I were to start to outline it here, it will need a budget speech of its own. For today, it will suffice to say, we have decided on a complete overhaul of the immigration system of our country. Work in this regard is well underway and we will soon unveil it.
“ Since the arrest of the Pakistani Kingpin on passport fraud on 24 March this year, the country's corruption unit cannot find time to rest. South Africans from all walks of life including members of parliament are reporting to them acts of fraud and corruption on a daily basis. This is heart warming that our people are tired of corruption,” said the minister in his budget vote.
On the 25th of March, the passport kingpin was arrested alongside 14 South Africans and 14 foreign nationals during a joint operation in Krugersdorp for falsifying passport documents.
According to the Hawks, R45 000 in cash as well as vehicles believed to be used by the syndicate in their operations were seized during this operation.